Jim, you will find much material in Barbanell's book The Trumpet shall sound. I hope this will help. If you don't have the book (it is rare, having been published in smaller numbers than others of his books) I would be happy to supply quoted passages.

Wes wrote:I always found Z to be polite and helpful, and as someone coming to grips with spiritualism and spirituality in general, he was a great source of information and advice in that area. Recent actions aside, I will certainly miss his presence on this forum.

Wes, I agree with you. Zerdini may have had moments of cantankerousness, but he was an exceptionally well-informed source and as such will be a loss to this forum.

After having carefully re-examined every one of Zerdini's posts it became obvious that a significant number of them were little other than condescending, rude or derogatory towards various people on the forum. These have been removed in the best interests of the forum.

A large proportion of the rest were cut and paste jobs of other peoples work or publications, many of which he has now removed, having done so without even the courtesy of advising Admin of his intentions, or why he felt it necessary to do so, despite knowing that it would cause significant disruption to the rationale and meaning of many threads. Luckily, almost all of the posts Zerdini removed can be re-instated, exactly because they are material published elsewhere by others.

That he took the time, at least in the past, though not in recent years, to find that material and to post it on this forum, constituted a valuable contribution and we give due recognition to him for that. That he would on occasion offer helpful comments or draw attention to useful reference material was also of value. For the rest, the reality is, Zerdini had the ability to alienate quite a few people, and indeed, there were more than a few who would not join the forum because of his presence on it.

Perhaps some have had run-ins with Zerdini elsewhere, online and in reality. Whatever the cause, it was at best often a balancing act between those who saw the value in Zerdini's contributions and those who did not and found his manner and presentation of information less than courteous.

Zerdini joined this forum very early on. Though he was never involved in the running of it, contrary to what some people have alleged, he did, especially in the early years, lend weight to the body of knowledge that the forum wished to make more accessible to Spiritualists and enquirers, and for that we must give him our thanks.

Whatever our personal view of Zerdini, it was his choice and his alone to remove material and act in the manner he did. That action, in my eyes, stripped Zerdini of much of the respect he might otherwise have been granted.

Miranda wrote:Jim, you will find much material in Barbanell's book The Trumpet shall sound. I hope this will help. If you don't have the book (it is rare, having been published in smaller numbers than others of his books) I would be happy to supply quoted passages.

Many thanks for that offer Miranda I would be delighted if you did. I have managed to get a half decently priced copy if it arrives for 28 quid